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New Aromstrong Doping Allegations

From Comcast.net.... do you guys think its legit? They have been trying tio nail him for years.
Tour Chief Says Armstrong Owes Explanation
By ANGELA DOLAND, Associated Press Writer

4 hours ago

PARIS - The director of the Tour de France claims Lance Armstrong has "fooled" the sports world and that the seven-time champion owes fans an explanation over new allegations he used a performance-boosting drug.

Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc's comments appeared in the French sports daily L'Equipe on Wednesday, a day after the newspaper reported that six urine samples provided by Armstrong during the '99 Tour tested positive for the red blood cell-booster EPO.

"For the first time _ and these are no longer rumors, or insinuations, these are proven scientific facts _ someone has shown me that in 1999, Armstrong had a banned substance called EPO in his body," Leblanc told L'Equipe.

"The ball is now in his court. Why, how, by whom? He owes explanations to us and to everyone who follows the tour. Today, what L'Equipe revealed shows me that I was fooled. We were all fooled."

On Tuesday, Leblanc called the latest accusations against Armstrong shocking and troubling.

"I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance-enhancing drugs," he said on his Web site.

Armstrong, who retired from professional cycling after winning the Tour a month ago, was not immediately available for comment regarding Leblanc's latest remarks.

EPO, formally known as erythropoietin, was on the list of banned substances at the time Armstrong won the first of his seven Tour's, but there was no effective test then to detect it.

The allegations surfaced six years later because EPO tests on the 1999 samples were carried out only last year _ when scientists at a lab outside Paris used them for research to perfect EPO testing. The national anti-doping laboratory in Chatenay-Malabry said it promised to hand its finding to the World Anti-Doping Agency, provided it was never used to penalize riders.

Five-time cycling champion Miguel Indurain said he couldn't understand why scientists would use samples from the 1999 Tour for their tests.

"That seems bizarre, and I don't know who would have the authorization to do it," he told L'Equipe. "I don't even know if it's legal to keep these samples."

L'Equipe's investigation was based on the second set of two samples used in doping tests. The first set were used in 1999 for analysis at the time. Without those samples, any disciplinary action against Armstrong would be impossible, French Sports Minister Jean-Francois Lamour said.

Lamour said he had doubts about L'Equipe's report because he had not seen the originals of some of the documents that appeared in the paper.

"I do not confirm it," he told RTL radio. But he added: "If what L'Equipe says is true, I can tell you that it's a serious blow for cycling."

The International Cycling Union did not begin using a urine test for EPO until 2001, though it was banned in 1990. For years, it had been impossible to detect the drug, which builds endurance by boosting the production of oxygen-rich red blood cells.

Jacques de Ceaurriz, the head of France's anti-doping laboratory, which developed the EPO urine test, told Europe-1 radio that at least 15 urine samples from the 1999 Tour had tested positive for EPO.

Separately, the lab said it could not confirm that the positive results were Armstrong's. It noted that the samples were anonymous, bearing only a six-digit number to identify the rider, and could not be matched with the name of any one cyclist.

However, L'Equipe said it was able to make the match.

On one side of a page Tuesday, it showed what it claimed were the results of EPO tests from anonymous riders used for lab research. On the other, it showed Armstrong's medical certificates, signed by doctors and riders after doping tests _ and bearing the same identifying number printed on the results.

L'Equipe is owned by the Amaury Group whose subsidiary, Amaury Sport Organization, organizes the Tour de France and other sporting events. The paper often questioned Armstrong's clean record and frequently took jabs at him _ portraying him as too arrogant, too corporate and too good to be real.

"Never to such an extent, probably, has the departure of a champion been welcomed with such widespread relief," the paper griped the day after Armstrong won his seventh straight Tour win and retired from cycling.

Leblanc suggested that in the future, urine samples could be stashed away for future testing as detection methods improve _ another possible weapon in the fight against doping.

"We're so tired of doping that all means are good as long as they are morally acceptable," he told L'Equipe.

No its not legit. First off its by the the paper that has written about him for years, L'Equipe. Second the guy behind the article is the same one that wrote a book about him claiming doping abuse. The book had real sketchy claims too. This one "claims" to have gotten samples from 1999. First off, they didn't follow any real procedures nor regulations regarding testing for this one. They claim they couldn't test for EPO until say 2001 but its now 2005. Don't you think they could have done this back in 2001 instead of now? Or what about during 2002, 2003, 2004? If this happened during the tour of the previous years it would have had much greater impact.

They supposedly had someone test Lance's 1999 blood for EPO, but here is the kicker, the lab never stated explicitly it was Armstrong's blood. The sample they used was a leftover and all samples do not have the rider's name, they have a serial number. The lab could not confirm that the blood is indeed Lance's. If you do some research you'll see. And again even if it was armstrong's blood it is very likely that they could have doctored the sample considering these guys stand to make money off Lance. Think about it, the people doing the "testing" work for or were paid by the newspaper company. The whole damn thing is really suspect. If this had taken place in the US, the press would tear them apart for not following proper testing procedures, having really questionable data, and having complete conflicts of interest. They already wrote a book, and they are in business of selling newspapers. Lance had the SAME tests done during this year's tour and nothing ever came out.

I hate ANYONE who gives Lance a hard time. I mean, c'mon, give it up for the guy, he's been through more than any snot-nosed reporter has ever done. I mean I know NOTHING about bycicling (professionally, atleast), but I do know that Lance has battled cancer, and completely won.